Will County Board votes to keep coroner

Voters will not have say on choosing medical examiner

August 19, 2008|By Erika Slife, TRIBUNE REPORTER

After two hours of sometimes emotional testimony Monday, the Will County Board narrowly rejected a proposal to put a question on November's ballot on whether the elected coroner should be replaced by an appointed medical examiner.

Although the GOP-controlled board has been examining the issue since last spring, some members said they voted down the proposal because they didn't know the true cost of switching to a medical examiner's office. Others said they didn't believe the coroner system needed changing.

"I don't really think we had all the information," said Tom Weigel (R-New Lenox), who joined six other Republicans and seven Democrats to defeat the proposal 14-12. "I think it sprung up in a real short span of time."

The issue marked the first political fallout from the Drew Peterson investigation. Under the watch of Democratic Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil, a coroner's jury in 2004 ruled the death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, an accident.

Now, the former Bolingbrook police sergeant, 54, is a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, and authorities reopened Savio's case as a murder investigation.

O'Neil's office has been under fire for its role in the initial investigation of Savio's death.

"Overall, I see it as a knee-jerk reaction to the Peterson-Savio situation," said Joseph Baltz (R-Shorewood). "I don't see that economically in the long run that we could accomplish it in our budget."

Critics of the proposal, including Will County State's Atty. James Glasgow, said it could cost millions of dollars to switch systems. An accredited medical examiner and staff would have to be hired, and toxicology labs would have to be built. In Illinois, only Cook County has a medical examiner system.

"How will this county board find the money to fund this proposed medical examiner system?" said Mike Van-Over, president of Local 1028 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "Is this something that should be rushed through? Is this what the tax-paying families of Will County deserve -- a politically motivated rush job?"

But about a dozen supporters of Stacy Peterson, wearing colorful T-shirts with her face imprinted on them, attended the board meeting to show their support for the medical examiner system. Those who testified at the meeting said they believe the current coroner system failed Savio and Stacy Peterson.

"I truly believe that if a medical examiner had been in place, Kathleen Savio's death would have been ruled a homicide four years ago," said Brenda Korneder of Bolingbrook. "That her family would not have had to endure the torment of an exhumation to confirm their fears and that they might have justice instead of pain and sorrow."